DISPUTED ABORTION MEASURE DIVIDES FLORIDA LAWMAKERS

A controversial proposal critics label a thinly veiled assault on abortion, but which supporters say reaffirms the rights of parents, is dividing Florida lawmakers.

A House subcommittee Tuesday will get the Legislature's first look this year at a bill (HB 80) requiring unmarried girls under 18 who live at home to tell their parents if they want an abortion.

"To me it's inconceivable that a 13-year-old girl must have her parents' permission if she has her tonsils out," said Rep. Jim Watt, R-Lake Park, the bill's sponsor and an attorney general candidate.

"But she doesn't even have to notify them if she's going to get an abortion."

If approved by the Legislature, Watt's bill could have a direct effect on as many as 30 percent of the abortions performed in the state.

"I think it's an attempt to try to restrain access to abortion," said Shirley Mirow, executive director of Planned Parenthood of South Palm Beach and Broward counties.

"I think (Watt) is hoping that these teen-age girls will put these babies up for adoption."

Watt's ally on the bill is Sen. John Vogt, D-Cocoa Beach, who introduced similar legislation (SB 125) in the Senate. In cases of divorce, both bills would limit notice to the custodial parent.

"We're trying to preserve more of the family decision-making process, rather than having kids make this kind of decision on their own," he said.

When asked if he thought the measure could reduce the more than 20,000 teen- age abortions in Florida, Vogt said, "If it did, I think that would be a good result."

Since the late 1970s, 13 states have enacted parental notification laws. In six of them, court challenges have kept the laws from being enforced.

Florida, too, had a notification law that was declared unconstitutional in 1979.

That year, the U.S. Supreme Court said such laws must let a girl ask a county judge to rule if she is emotionally mature enough for an abortion without her parents' knowledge.

Both the House and Senate bills - which Watt and Vogt have introduced for the second straight year - contain this so-called judicial override.

"If this bill ever got to the floor of the House and Senate it would go. There's enough support on the floor for it," said Sen. William "Doc" Myers, R-Hobe Sound, an internist and member of the Senate Health and Rehabilitative Services Committee.

Rep. Steve Press, D-Delray Beach, is chairman of the House Health and Economic Services Subcommittee that will hear Watt's bill this week. He voted against the measure last year.

"It's just not a necessary law," Press said. "And besides, it's going to clog up the court system by having minors with costly, court-appointed counsel (seeking abortions)."

Rep. Irma Rochlin, D-Hallandale, a retired nurse, said she will oppose Watt's bill when it comes before the subcommittee. She said the bill would reverse gains made by women's advocates.

"I have seen people die in the era of self-induced abortions, and that is not in the best interest of the people," Rochlin said. "I don't want to see those days return."

The bill was approved by Press' panel and later the full House Health and Rehabilitative Services committee last year, but failed to reach a floor vote. Vogt's Senate bill died in committee a year ago.

"It's never too late to get the support of parents," said Rep. Rodolfo Garcia, R-Hialeah, a subcommittee member and, at 22, the youngest member of the Legislature.

The latest available figures by age for abortions in Florida are in a 1981 study compiled by the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a national organization that researches public policy on reproductive health.

The institute study shows there were 74,270 abortions in Florida in 1981, with the age group 15 to 19 accounting for 22,820 abortions.

Fifty-eight of the 134 pregnancies per 1,000 girls in that age group, or 43 percent, ended in abortion, the study shows.

Critics and proponents of the legislation do find some areas of agreement. Both sides say most pregnant girls already discuss decisions to have an abortion with parents.

Mirow, of Planned Parenthood, said one study found parents were told in more than 90 percent of the cases involving girls ages 13 to 15. Among girls ages 16 to 19, parents were aware of close to 60 percent of the abortions.

But rather than promote harmony within families, the legislation would create discord, critics charge.

"This is a personal decision that has to be made," said Steve Forester, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida. "I don't think there'd be a meaningful change in a family relationship because of this law."

Forester said the ACLU would consider challenging the measure, if approved, on the grounds it violates a teen-ager's right to privacy.

The privacy issue forms the basis for a Planned Parenthood challenge to Minnesota's parental notice law, in effect since 1981. The case is currently the subject of a federal trial in Minneapolis.

"The real intent of the law was to stop abortions for minors," said Tom Webber, executive director of Planned Parenthood of Minnesota.

Abortions for teens in the state plummeted 33 percent from 1980 to 1982, Webber said. But abortions overall in Minnesota dropped only 6 percent in those years. Webber said that decline continues.

"The rhetoric of the law was not to reduce abortions. But, love, harmony and support have not increased," he said.

Minnesota's judicial override is also criticized for its effect on teens in rural areas.

"Confidentiality is very difficult there," said Kathleen Corradino, president of Minnesota's National Organization for Women.

"Once a minor child gets to the courtroom they might as well be talking to their parents."

In Florida, not surprisingly, the proposal has been embraced by anti-abortion groups.

"Parents should have jurisdiction over their children, not the state," said Lorraine van de Wal, spokeswoman for Christians For Life, who oppose abortion.

Most supporters of the legislation say distribution of birth control and venereal disease testing - areas typically shielded from parents - also should be part of parental right-to-know laws.

"It all should be this way. It belongs in the home," Myers, the Hobe Sound senator, said.

STATUS OF LAWS

The following states have enacted parental notification laws in the past few years. Here is their status: